Controversy continues-

The Tribe says that it is losing credibility in the University of Idaho Caine Veterinary center when it comes to the accurate reporting of the outcome of tests of bighorn sheep and domestic sheep tissues.

The Tribe has a big stake in this because of their treaty rights given the disease caused decline of bighorn sheep in Idaho.

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Ralph Maughan

Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is President of the Western Watersheds Project.

Under Otter, the situation where lies and junk science are rewarded – and truth is punished – has worsened. No assault on truth and common sense is too great, if it protects Otter and the Farm Bureau’s rancher crnies.

Otter has acted, as well, to strike fear in the heart of any agency person who crosses the bullying welfare ranching sheepmen and cowmen. Witness the slap-down and public humiliation of Dave Parrish. The official reason was the Parrish letter to the Times News about the effects of wind development in critical BLM sage-grouse habitats in the Jarbidge. The hatchet men were Senator Bert Brackett and Scott Bedke who had long been trying to get rid of Parrish because Fish and Game under Parrish had dared to write letters to BLM Forest Service about livestock – including these very ranchers livestock – trashing public lands.

Recall too that an Otter edict enacted a policy that state employees couldn’t talk to the Press unless Otter ok’d it. To further quash any minion who might utter a word of truth about livestock or anything that affected any Otter industry crony.

Under these circumstances, what can anybody expect to come out of the U of I but industry mouthpieces like Bulgin, and the range hack reports like the U of I prepared claiming that leaving protective cover on streambanks grazed by cattle wasn’t necessary. The U of I range hacks would have us believe that dirt and manure work just fine to protect streams and fish habitat from erosion during snowmelt runoff – or the downpours of this June. Or in the case of slickspot peppergrass (trampled by Brackett cattle as well), they would have us believe that a thousand pound cow won’t damage this rare plant habitat through trampling of soils in slickspots where it grows and where water accumulates. You see, the U of I needs to “study” whether cows will trmaple slickspots. It – has been doing so for quite a while now – and apparently they have found something that doesn’t support ranchers. So the slickspot trmapling “study” that tax dollars have been spent on has apparently has been buried to support Otter’s rancher cronies …

Oh, and just in case anyone is interested in vetting the veracity of the info used in studies by the U of I, or “spun” might be a better word – didn’t the ID Leg pass some law that exempted research info from State Records Act requests? Leaving them free to fabricate, too??? Does anyone recall this?

Are you sure it wasn’t the paper who added the “IDFG” to the signature? That’s my understanding of what happened. It’s happened to other people I know with that paper.

A friend was being interviewed about an issue and he specifically said that he was not representing the IDFG in his views but the reporter put it in the paper anyway. He was called into headquarters and nearly fired by Steve Huffaker for it. The IDFG didn’t even have a stand on the issue at hand and by all rights it should have taken the stand that the issue was good for wildlife. It was all political B.S. Guess which paper it was.

If you want to argue that IDFG is a captured agency, there are plenty of examples out there to advance your argument. There are even examples within the Parrish story that indicate a captured agency.

I stand by my assertion that if he wouldn’t signed it “IDFG Regional Supervisor” he would have weathered the storm. He wouldn’t have been crossways with the state wide govt. media policy, which, as a regional supervisor, he knew the playing field. Maybe he fell on his sword because he felt passionately about the place. He still works for IDFG.

I know Browns Bench and it is an awesome, incredible wonderous area. I don’t want to see it developed as a wind farm.

The link you provided just says Dave Parrish, Jerome. You might want to take a closer look at that.

However he does refer to “our agency”. That being said, I think it is a great example of how these bastards won’t tolerate any dissent. It’s kind of like we live in Iran.

The IDFG and its employees have every right to speak in dissent to the powers that be. In fact the IDFG was set up to be separate from the powers that be but it is sad that they are just pawns in the big game of livestock apology. It’s why I left.

This has been going on for quite a while – and is pervasive.http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/16/1209/85649/949/516706
The ‘Kossacks’ – I have a membership there too, come to think of it, though I rarely even comment – are decried as ‘leftists’ by the spin brigade : who are themselves sometimes also referred to as ‘the 101st Fighting Keyboarders’ by those less enamored by false advertising. Realism in the tradition of Mark Twain has a hard time getting respect these days.
Regardless, a proper ‘theory’ is established under conditions of rigor where it best predicts actual events.
Chew on that.

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‎"At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour."